Are you a Government Contractor? Time to Become CMMC Compliant

In observance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October), the Illinois Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at Bradley University is offering a 3-part webinar series. Cybersecurity Awareness Month was recreated as a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online. Individuals and organizations have to do their part in protecting their cyberspace. This series of presentations introduces the DoD’s (US Department of Defense) cybersecurity evolution from NIST 800-171 to the new CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification). During the presentations, we will explore the DoD’s rationale for implementing this, but most importantly educate DoD suppliers as to how to navigate the requirement and understand the DoD’s expectations. If you are one of the 221,000+ suppliers to the DoD – whether big or small, whether prime or subcontractor, if you handle Federal Contract Information (FCI) or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), you will need to become certified to bid on contracts, which became a requirement in early 2021. We will conclude with a complete path forward on becoming certified and explore why the process will likely take most organizations 6 months or more to become certified. “Compliance with industry standards for Cyber preparedness is no longer an option, but a requirement.” Speaker – Brian Berger, President of Cytellix Corporation Benefits of Attending: What steps to take to meet CMMC compliance requirements How to vet 3rd party providers Pitfalls to avoid when working towards compliance On-going investments to maintain compliance About Our Speaker: Brian Berger is the president of Cytellix Corporation, responsible for running the business that includes business operations, marketing, technology development, sales and customer success of the cyber team and its high touch services and enterprise grade technology solutions at an affordable cost. He possesses over 28 years of experience in device security, IT, data analytics and corporate leadership and has led the successful development early stage companies to leadership positions in their respective markets. Berger has led the completion of strategic agreements with multibillion-dollar cloud service providers and OEM’s, securing significant contracts in data encryption, authentication, network security, cloud, analytics and embedded hardware security. Prior to his role at Cytellix, Berger was co-founder and CEO of Cerberus Co., an IoT and cloud security company renowned for developing owner-based information containers managed from the cloud. Berger holds seven patents in cryptographic technology. He has served as the chairman and board director for Trusted Computing Group.